Fixing Things
by sparra-music
Summary: S1 AU. A tale regarding the further dangers posed by certain abnormals. Adult language and content, not for under-18s.
1. AN

**This story takes place AU from Season 1 of Sanctuary.** I'm fairly certain that anyone reading this fanfic has had ample time to watch any episodes I've got spoilers for. If you've managed to find a DVD copy of Sanctuary and are watching it, this is somewhere after the nubbins and before Will turns into a raging Hulk in an abnornal fight club. I didn't exactly pick a specific moment to jump off, since I haven't seen these since last year when they were on TV. But Will is himself and Ashley is still alive and uncaptured and un-experimented on....

**This is my first fanfic ever**, and while I'm somewhat disgusted with myself for "wasting my time on fanfic" rather than working on one of the two novels I have started, I very much hope that you enjoy this fic. If it's not too much trouble, I appreciate any constructive criticism you have to offer. Especially if anyone wants to suggest a category (or more than one) for this story...

**Disclaimers:**

I do not own Sanctuary or its characters. I hereby apologize to said owners and/or characters and/or the actors portraying said characters if they take offense at what I've written. It's 1:37 am and I had to get out of my writer's block somehow. Please forgive me.

PS. _**If you are under 18 years of age**_ and did not read the summary, _**please exit this story. **_You're not ready for the horrors I'm going to throw at you, including, but not limited to, adult language and situations.


	2. Chapter 1

**Scene 1**

_Damn rats._ Will's irritation grew with each chewed wire he found_. I hate having to come down here and fix things._ It had started with the lights in his room flickering yesterday. Today they wouldn't even turn on and none of the electrical outlets was working, either. After finding out that Henry'd been having similar problems, they'd decided to look for the problem. Since then, Will had trekked through every level of the Sanctuary, culminating in slogging through the tunnels beneath the basement following a trail of chewed wires. And Henry? Magnus had called Henry not five minutes after they started, so Will didn't even have the option of talking to Henry to pass the time.

Throwing his bag on the ground, Will pulled out the wire stripper, and a pair of needle-nose pliers to repair the mangled mess in front of him. _Damn rats. When I get back upstairs, I am SO telling Magnus she needs to hire an exterminator. Or at the very least, get us some poison or something we can spray down here to kill the buggers. This is the second time in like, a month, that I've been down here doing this. _Will shuddered involuntarily._ At least this time it's not those damn nubbins. That would REALLY suck._

Will's phone interrupted his inner diatribe and he paused to dig it out of his pocket. "Yeah?" he answered as he began patching the wires.

"Will, where are you?" Magnus's tone was slightly annoyed, but Will was not in a mood to care about her annoyance.

"The tunnels, patching a bunch of chewed-up wires. You should really think about hiring an exterminator, you know. 'Cause this is ridiculous. I've got better things to be doing with my time than traipsing around in the tunnels fixing things."

"Will, there's a nubbin loose. Possibly more than one. Maybe even as many as four or five."

"What?" Will dropped the pliers, grabbed the phone from the crook of his shoulder, and swore under his breath in one fluid action. "How did that happen?"

"Apparently, the freezer unit in their habitat broke this morning. After which, they chewed through the metal bars of their cage, and then overloaded the EM shield surrounding it. There's a bunch of charred nubbins and quite a few stunned ones up here. Henry's busy working on new containment for them."

Will ran his fingers through his hair as he digested all that Magnus had said. _They chewed through the bars of their cage? In a less than a day?_ "Suddenly, Ashley's plan is sounding better and better, Magnus."

"Will, I am not going to kill dozens of lifeforms just because they are a nuisance."

"Why not? You'd do it if they were rats." Will had the phone jammed into his shoulder again as he went back to the wiring.

"Yes, well we know rats exist elsewhere on the planet. We don't have that guarantee with nubbins. No, Will, I won't take the chance of wiping out the species completely, no matter how tempting it might be."

"So we throw a pair in stasis. Come on, Magnus, it could work."

"No, Will."

"Oh, damn."

"What?"

"I thought it was rats that had been chewing up these wires I've been fixing, but it was probably some of those damn nubbins. You know they've got a taste for them."

"Yes, well, keep your eyes open. I don't think they'll be aggressive at this point, but we can't really be sure. Do you have a weapon?"

"Yes Magnus, of course I have a weapon, because making the light work in my room always requires a gun!" Magnus was not sure if there was more sarcasm or annoyance in Will's answer and decided to ignore both.

"Very well, then. And just so you know, Ashley is also looking for the nubbins, but she's only got tranqs in her gun."

Will finished the patch just as Magnus hung up, and slung his bag over his shoulder thinking, _And that's supposed to make me feel safer?_


	3. Chapter 2

**Scene 2**

_Damn nubbins. We really ought to just kill them all. _Ashley's mood was decidedly dark as she tramped through the tunnel._ And if I have to go down into the sewers... _Ashley struggled to think of something that would make up for such an indignity, but failed.

_At least I get to shoot the damn things. Maybe I could 'accidentally' shoot them more than once- or twice- and kill them by overdose of tranquillizers. Nah, Mom would catch on. Especially since I've only bagged two, and they were both injured already. _Ashley caught a flicker of movement ahead an quickened her pace.

Pstchoo!_ Haha! Got another one! _"Take that, you walking hormone!" As Ashley bent down and picked the nubbin up, she felt something against her stomach. "Eww, gross!" _This freaking nubbin just peed on me!_ "Mom is SO going to owe me a new set of clothes after this!" Ashley threw the nubbin in her bag and continued down the tunnel in search of more nubbins to vent her spleen on.


	4. Chapter 3

**Scene 3**

_I wish the Doc would just let they others kill these buggers and be done with it. They are such a pain in the ass!_

Henry was having trouble finding something that the nubbins couldn't destroy. He'd thought that the three-inch steel bars would be good enough, especially since the original cage was inside an EM field inside one of the habitats. _But nooo, the damn nubbins ate through the bars, overloaded the EM field, and then chewed through the door. And Magnus still wanted to make sure the damn things could have access to fresh air and light?_

"Think, Henry, think." The mental pep-talk became oral as the techno-geek continued to search for a solution. As he became more and more frustrated, he started to pace. Then his speed increased. Just when he was on the verge of throwing his datapad on the floor in frustration, he looked up. And it hit him.

_Of course! They've chewed through everything else, but I don't think that they've ever even tried to chew through the plexiglass viewing windows! I wonder how soon Magnus could get me more of that stuff?_


	5. Chapter 4

**Scene 4**

Will had heard the crackling twenty feet ago. Now he was sure he could hear the sound of teeth intermittently grating on the stone. _I'm gonna catch one of the damn things in the act! Oh, how I would love to kill it!_

_But how?_ the other, more rational part of his brain demanded. _You have no gun full of tranqs to shoot it with, no bat or club to hit it with, and let's face, you can't trust yourself to knock the thing out by throwing rocks at it. You'd probably just piss it off._

_So what, then? _argued the part of his mind that was too pissed-off to care. _I'll just have to strangle it, or something._

_Or something? You should really make a plan before you go around that corner._

_I wonder if nubbins can be electrocuted. They chew through wires pretty easily, but Magnus said Henry's EM field took down a bunch of them. Maybe you just have to hit them with it in the right place._ An evil grin spread itself over Will's face as he peeked around the corner, deciding just how to grab the nubbin and kill it.

Unbeknownst to Will, Ashley was peering at the same nubbin through a door not twenty feet away. "Gotcha now, sucker!" she hissed as she shot at the nubbin...

Just as Will sprang around the corner, grabbed the nubbin, and got hit in the hand by the tranq dart.

"Shit!" cried Ashley, barging through the door and after the fleeing nubbin. "Sorry, Will," she added, almost as an afterthought as she passed him.

Will just smiled up at her and waved from where he was slumped against the wall, already nearly unconscious. _She's so hot. I'd let her shoot me any day if it means getting to watch that rear end. Too bad she's not the type to get all comforting on you._ A daydream of Ashley putting her arms around him was the last thing Will saw before falling completely asleep.

Meanwhile, Ashley was running after the nubbin, trying to aim her gun as she ran. Finally she got close enough to tackle it, finally putting a dart in it from one side while holding it still from the other. _Gotcha, ya little pain in the ass! _ She put the nubbin in the bag with the others and pulled out her phone, dialing as she started to backtrack to Will's position.

"Mom? Hey, I ran into Will down here in the tunnels. Was he chasing the nubbins too?"

"In a way. I called to tell him they were loose; he was already down in the tunnels fixing some wiring." Helen's voice hardened. "But why couldn't you just ask him, Ashley?"

Ashley paused, rubbing the back of her neck and head. "Um, well, you see..."

"What happened, Ashley?"

"I sorta shot him!" Ashley blurted. "But it was an accident, I swear! I shot the dart and he just popped out of nowhere and stuck his hand in the way!"

Silence reigned on Magnus's end of the telephone.

"Okay, okay, so I guess he was just trying to grab the damn nubbin, but I really didn't see him before I shot at the thing." Ashley looked down at the sleeping Will. _Damn straight I didn't see him first. Like I would ever want to shoot yummy, yummy Will? Get a grip, Ashley!_

Her mother's voice suddenly registered. "I said, do you think you can get him back up to the Sanctuary, Ashley?"

"Not at the same time as I'm carrying this damn sack of nubbins." _But wouldn't it be nice to have an excuse to put my arms around his chest..._

"So someone will have to go back for him. Would it do any good to send Henry or the big guy down with a stretcher to help?"

"Henry, yes. Stretcher, no. I had to go down two ladders to get to this level." Ashley paused. "And for what? So I could get peed on by one of these damn nubbins and accidentally shoot Will? You really ought to just let me kill them, Mom."

"Ashley, just think what would have happened if I had okayed that this morning. You'd have shot Will with a bullet, and not a tranq dart."

"Only in the hand, which means he'd still be awake, and I wouldn't be trying to figure out how I'm going to get him up ladders unconscious."

Helen sighed audibly, and Ashley decided to give it up for the moment.

"So, where am I bringing these things for containment?"

"Back to their habitat."

"What? You've got to be kidding me! These things just escaped from there, I've been hunting them for hours, and you want me to just go dump them all back in their old cage so that they can escape again?"

"First of all, Henry's put up a new door on the habitat and strengthened the EM field. He's working on fixing the freezer unit right now. He's also getting ready to weld a solid sheet of metal over the hole after you put the escaped nubbins back. That's the best we can do until we can get the materials Henry wants for the new, improved cage."

"Alright." Ashley wasn't happy with this plan and her tone of voice let her mother know it, but she also wasn't going to argue. "Later."


	6. Chapter 5

**Scene 5**

An hour and fifteen minutes later, an exhausted and extremely grimy Ashley entered the nubbin habitat, grumbling. "I still say we should just kill them all."

"Wouldn't get any argument from me," Henry replied lightly.

"Do you realize one of them woke up, started chewing its way out of the bag, and then bit me? And another one of them peed on me! I swear, Mom is going to owe me so much for today! And not just new clothes, either!"

Henry turned back to the freezer unit to turn it on after having finally finished his repairs. The room began to cool rapidly, but one person didn't notice.

Because Ashley was busy staring at Henry. _Why have I never noticed before what a tight ass he has? Or how well-defined his arms are? Or..._

_Stoppit, Ashley! Ewww!_ If her mind could have jumped out of her body, it surely would have. _He is your brother! Brother! Not to be lusted after! Eww! Eww! Eww!_

Henry cocked his head at Ashley. She was giving him the strangest look. And licking her lips. Suddenly his brain leapt into gear. _The nubbins! Oh, gross! I've had to be in here with them all day, and even my mind hasn't gone there-- that's just gross! She's my sister._ Henry turned back around so that he wouldn't have to see the lustful look on Ashley's face. Unfortunately, he also missed the look on her face when Ashley's mental disgust caught up to the nubbin hormones.

"So, you gonna dump those damn things in the cage?" Henry knew that Ashley didn't really feel that way about him, but the disgust in his voice wasn't solely reserved for the nubbins.

Ashley blushed a brilliant shade of pink, realizing that she had been staring. At Henry. _Eww. And he noticed. Even worse. Probably thinks I'm some kind of disgusting perve now. Just great_.

With little regard for the nubbins within, Ashley untied one of the knots in her bag, put the ends inside the hole in what was now the top of the cage, and lifted the other end of the bag. The nubbins all tumbled out unceremoniously, right on top of the other nubbins in the cage, who were already beginning to look sleepy due to the drop in temperature. Ashley threw the bag on the floor and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute, Ashley! Aren't you going to tell me where Will is so that I can come help you get him as soon as I get this welded on and the EM field restarted?"

"Oh, yeah." Ashley had been in such a hurry to get out of the nubbin habitat and away from the embarrassing situation with Henry that she had in fact forgotten that she was even supposed to do that. She quickly gave him directions and then left. _When will this awful day end?_


	7. Chapter 6

**Scene 6**

Ashley had just finished climbing down a ladder when her phone rang. She put it to her ear as she started walking.

"Ashley? Yeah, it's Henry. Um, just so you know, I think one of the nubbins might have got to a main power line, because I can't draw enough right now for the new EM containment field. I think I can bypass it-- use one of the other major conduits and reroute the flow, but it'll take me a while. So when you get Will as far as the ladder, just wait for me, okay? I'll be along pretty soon. And watch out! There may be a large power line down there that could kill you if you touch the break."

Ashley stopped dead, her mind replaying the earlier scene with Will. She saw him reach-- in slow motion-- for the nubbin... the nubbin which had been chewing on a huge power line. _Oh God, no!_ She sped up. "This cable, would it be about two-three inches around? Covered in black rubber?" _Please, oh please, let him say no._ But in her heart, Ashley was pretty sure of the answer already, and she barely heard Henry's astonished reply.

"Yeah, that's probably exactly what it would look like. How'd you know?"

The phone was forgotten in her hand as Ashley began to sprint down the tunnel. Henry tried shouting her name, but when she didn't answer, he figured that the rhythmic thump, thump, thump he heard on the line must be some sort of interference and hung up. _Huh, I'll have to check the phones later on tonight, too. Or maybe tomorrow._


	8. Chapter 7

**Scene 7**

"Will!" As soon as she barreled through the doorway to where she could seem him again, Ashley screamed his name. She could see the live end of the power line, hanging only marginally away from wall and her heart beat painfully in her chest as she took the last few feet to Will's side in a slide on her knees.

_Why, oh why didn't I check to see if he was okay before I went after the nubbin? Or at least before I took them upstairs? I thought I only tranqed him, but what if he accidentally touched the wire when he tried to get the nubbin? What if he's ... Oh, thank God, there's a pulse._ Ashley was so glad to feel the steady throb of his carotid artery beneath her fingers, she just left her fingers there while she struggled to catch her breath.

_Oh, I'm so glad he's all right!_ Ashley felt ready to sob with relief as she gazed down at Will, her hand moving to gently caress his face of its own volition. She didn't even notice when her other hand dropped the phone she'd been clutching and moved to caress the other side of his face. _He's so beautiful... and peaceful... and one little kiss can't hurt, can it? He'll never even know._

The kiss started as just a gentle brush of the lips, but as soon as Ashley lifted her head, she bent down for another. And another. _Oh, he's intoxicating. And these muscles... _she ran her hands down his chest... _are just begging to be touched! And I will, I will..._ her hands were under his shirt on the way back up, and then caressing his sides and back... _oh, so hard, so smooth, so yummy! No psychologist has ever been built like this before. Oh... Must have more. More kisses, more touches. More..._ Ashley was straddling Will now, although she was not aware of having changed position as she continued to kiss and caress him.


	9. Chapter 8

**Scene 8**

Henry arrived at second ladder and looked down. _Where is she? It took me over two hours to get that damn cage done and the EM field running again, and nearly forty minutes more to get down here. She should be waiting for me._

"Ashley?" he yelled. He tried yelling a couple more times. _Maybe she got sick of waiting, and called Mom to come help her. I'll just check._ He dialed Magnus's number. _Or maybe, I'm in the wrong spot. She did seem pretty flustered when she gave me directions earlier. Maybe I should call Ash instead._

"Henry?"

"Hey doc, did Ash call you?"

"No, I haven't talked to her for a while now and was actually just getting ready to call you because she's not answering her phone. And why haven't you two brought Will up to the infirmary? I know Ashley said it was just one tranq, but I'd still feel better if I gave him a quick checkup."

"Well, I just got to the second ladder and Ash isn't here. I kinda expected her to be waiting for me since it took me so long to get that frigging cage done. When she wasn't, I thought maybe she got tired of waiting and called you. Patience has never been her strong suit."

Helen let out a quick mirthless laugh at the comment, but couldn't help the worry that set in regarding her daughter. "Are you sure you're in the right spot?"

"Pretty sure. Ash seemed a little... unsettled when she gave me the directions earlier. Like maybe the nubbin hormones were starting to get to her." Henry paused. "Well, I'm gonna try and call her-- I thought I might have been getting interference on the line with her earlier-- and if she doesn't answer, I'm gonna drop down to the second level and go look for her."

"The big guy and I will come help."

"Okay, you're the boss, but make sure you guys are careful, we've got a major broken power line down here somewhere."

"Thanks for the warning, Henry. You be careful, too."

Henry dialed Ashley's number as he started down the ladder. When her phone went to voicemail after five rings, he hung up and tried again. _Maybe even if she doesn't answer I can use the phone to help find her. Follow the ringing... if only I were close enough to hear it. _Noticing the dirt looked more disturbed towards his left, he trudged off in that direction. _At least this part of the tunnel's pretty dry at the moment._


	10. Chapter 9

**Scene 9**

As he pushed the half-open door out of the way and stepped closer to the ringing of Ashley's phone, the first thing Henry noticed were the sparks coming off the broken power cable. As he shined his flashlight at it to inspect the damage, a lump on the floor caught his attention. As the flashlight spotlighted the bag, he recognized it as Will's. Then he saw the fingertips in the dim edge of the flashlight beam. He followed the fingertips up the arm-- _Will's arm!_-- to where the arm met the shoulder, which was covered by long, blond hair.

Then he dropped the flashlight.

Turning around, he frantically hit speed dial one. _Oh, God. Why, oh why, do I have to be the one to tell her?_

"Yes, Henry, did you find Ashley? Or Will?"

"Uh.."

"Henry!" Magnus's voice, already worried when she picked up the phone, was quickly moving to frantic.

"Henry! Henry, are you okay?"

"Uh, um, yeah, I'm okay..." Henry had finally relocated his voice, but his answer to Helen was so toneless that she immediately doubted the veracity of his statement.

"Are you sure? Where are you?"

"I found Ashley and Will." Henry continued in a monotone.

"And? Why won't they answer either of their phones? It's been hours, the tranquillizer should be wearing off of Will pretty soon. Where are all of you?"

_Is that a light?_ Henry wondered. He turned halfway to look, making sure not to look at a certain lump on the floor_. It is a light-- and not coming from my flashlight. It's gonna come around the corner any minute now..._

"Henry! Where are..." Magnus's voice cut off mid-question as she came barreling around the corner and nearly tripped over the entwined bodies of Ashley and Will. The big guy nearly running her over from behind would have been comical but for the horrified look on her face.

"I'm right here." answered Henry dully as he turned away again. "And I really, really, really wish to God that I wasn't."


	11. Chapter 10

**Scene 10**

It was hard say exactly what Magnus was feeling at that moment. Shock over nearly falling over the people they'd been searching for. Relief that the missing persons had been found. Shock over the position they were in. Relief that nobody was dead. _Well, not yet, anyway._ Shock, that the two of them would be getting it on while....

_Oh God._ One look at Will's face told Magnus he was out cold. _And there's no way that he could have woken up and done THAT with Ashley and fallen asleep again, enough time hasn't passed. _Magnus sized up the fact that Will's shirt, while still buttoned, was pushed high on his chest and the bottom button appeared to have been ripped loose. One arm was sprawled down the corridor as if reaching for something; the other was pinned at his side under Ashley's naked leg. His pants were shoved down, but not very far. _Just far enough._ And Ashley was still wearing the same baggy tee shirt she'd been wearing all day. _Thank God! At least she happens to be wearing something long enough to cover her butt! But, oh, this is not good! Not good! What could have possessed her to make out with Will while he was unconscious? And then just curl up on top of him and fall asleep? Oh, not good! Not good! Not good! Not good!_

Helen's mind might have continued repeating those two words over and over for a very long time if she hadn't been startled out of her reverie by repeated throat clearing by Henry and the big guy.

"What?" she wondered if they had asked a question or if they were just waiting for her to say-- or do-- something.

"Is it safe to turn around?" Henry asked in a tiny voice.

_Oh, great! They expect me to- to- to pull them apart? And make them presentable? Why is that my job?_

_Because you're her mother, and you're a doctor, and they probably think it'll somehow be less gross if you do it,_ the methodical part of her brain answered.

_Yeah, right. Maybe more gross because it's my daughter._ Feeling every one of her one hundred and fifty-seven years, Magnus grabbed her daughter under the armpits and heaved her up off of Will before dumping her gently by his side. The squelching sound she heard only served to increase her horror and disgust. _When you wake up, young lady, we are going to have a very long, serious talk. And you are going to be in so much trouble! _Magnus quickly adjusted Will's pants and pulled his shirt down. Then she began looking for Ashley's black jeans. _Oh come on, Ashley, what did you do with your frigging pants? Wait a minute,_ thought Magnus, _why am I looking for her pants? She can look for her own damn pants._ And with that, Magnus turned and began shaking Ashley's shoulders.

"Wake up! Do you hear me, Ashley Magnus! Wake up!"

"Uhhhn." Ashley groaned before opening her eyes just a little. "Whaz goin on?"

"You tell me! Or better yet, don't tell me, I don't want to know! But you better have a damn good explanation for this!"

_She's not making much sense,_ thought Ashley dazedly_. But she's swearing. That means she pissed about something. Mom never swears._ Ashley groaned again. _My brain feels so fuzzy. And my legs are cold. Why are my legs cold?_

Henry chanced a quick peek over his shoulder and quickly turned his head back around and closed his eyes. His sister's legs were sprawled in front of her in a most unladylike way, and were still bare. "Uh, Magnus?" he called.

"What is it, Henry?" Helen snapped.

His eyes were still closed, but that didn't stop Henry wishing that the ground would open in front of him and he could just step off into the abyss. "I think she might have been high on nubbin hormones."

Looking down at her daughter, who was rubbing her face with the heels of her hands and mostly unaware of her surroundings, Helen wondered what was going through her mind at that moment_. If she was seriously high on nubbin hormones, that might-- just might-- be enough to explain why what happened, happened. But even if that is the case, she's still gonna owe Will one hell of an explanation and apology._

Ashley's brain was still working to put together all the pieces of the puzzle, like where she was-- _Am I in the tunnels? Why am I down in the tunnels? And why was I asleep down in the tunnels?_-- why her mom looked ready to wring her neck-- _was it because I was asleep in the tunnels and she was worried and had to come looking for me?_-- and why her legs were so cold-- "Ohmigosh, where the hell are my pants?"

The dilated eyes, the frantic visual search for her pants that ended with her eyes nearly popping out of her head when she saw Will next to her, the groan and muttered, "Oh, God!" as Ashley pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them and then covered her head with her hands and wrists-- all this would have told Magnus all she needed to know. Even if she hadn't bent over enough to hear Ashley murmur, "So it wasn't some crazy sex dream after all. Oh God!"

And then as her daughter began to sob harshly, Helen's motherly instincts took over. She wrapped Ashley in a hug and began to rub her back while asking Henry and the big guy to look for Ashley's pants.

A moan from her side caused her to look down. _Oh, no. Could you pick a worse time to come around, Will Zimmerman?_ Helen mind went into overdrive trying to think how this could possibly end in a way that was _not _horrible.

_Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, oh, God...._

_Stop panicking and think, Helen!_

_My daughter just -- well, pretty much just raped--_

_no pretty much about it..._

_a member of my staff. My psychologist, no less. The person I'd normally turn to for help in a situation like this..._

_and he's the victim, but he doesn't know it yet..._

_and she's in no condition to explain anything, you'd think from her reaction, it was the other way around..._

_but the dart's still in his hand, he was on the bottom..._

_it definitely WAS her fault..._

_No! At least, not entirely. It was those damn nubbins..._

_You shoulda let the kids kill 'em._

_No! that would have been wrong! And it's beside the point! What do I do now?_

_I dunno know! How the hell should I know, if you don't know?_

_But Will's waking up! What do I say to him?_

"Magnus? What's going on?" Will's voice, slurred because he was still more than half-asleep from the tranquillizers, was Helen's undoing. She put her head down on Ashley's back and started crying too. Which had the unintended effect of waking Will up even better than a triple expresso.

"Magnus? What's going on? Why are you and Ashley crying?"

"It's all my fault!" choked out Ashley in a voice so low that no one understood her words except Helen, who started murmuring soothingly into her hair.

"Um." Henry's voice barely registered with Will, who was staring at the two women. It didn't register with them at all.

"Um." Henry tried again, just a little bit louder.

"Um." He was toeing the dirt and trying to figure out how to say this as un-awkwardly as possible.

"Um."

"Henry, if you've got something to say, why don't you just say it? And could someone please tell me what in blazes is going on?" Will snapped in confusion.

Then he looked up from his position on the floor and caught a brief glimpse of what looked like wadded-up clothes and Ashley's boots in Henry's hands. Then Henry threw the bundle on the floor, grabbed Will's arm and yanked him up off the floor and into a run in one move. As he pushed Will through the doorway, Henry yelled over his shoulder, "There you go! We'll be upstairs playing video games!"


	12. Chapter 11

**Scene 11**

Henry pushed or pulled Will through the tunnels, up two ladders, and through the basement to the elevator while pointedly ignoring Will's questions.

Will was starting to get a wee bit upset. With everybody.

"Henry, I know you know what's going on. Now tell me." Will's voice was low, but steady.

"Nope, not talking about it." Henry's eyes were glued to the floor.

Will shoved him against the wall of the elevator and then punched the wall next to his face, screaming, "Dammit, Henry, just tell me what the hell's going on!"

"Dude-I-am-not-the-one-who-owes-you-an-explanation-and-I-really-don't-want-to-get-dragged-into-this-anymore-than-I-already-have," Henry said so quickly that the whole sentence came out as one long word. He started again, more slowly, "So could you _please_ just drop it for now?" Henry was pleading, with his voice and his eyes, and part of Will wanted to let him off the hook.

The part that wanted answers, however, won the internal argument. "No, Henry, I can not just drop it! I want to know what's going on! Why can't anybody look at me all of a sudden and why were you holding Ashley's pants down in the tunnels and why were she and Magnus crying? What was Ashley doing with her pants off in the tunnels anyway? And why does my hand hurt so much?"

Will kicked the wall and looked down at his hand to see a bruise on the back of it. And then he remembered the dart piercing it just as he had grabbed the nubbin around the neck. "Ashley shot me." Will's voice was quiet, but it didn't really sound angry anymore to Henry.

So Henry stayed quiet. Hoping that he could escape before Will figured out enough to ask any more questions.

Ding! The elevator doors opened and Henry shot out of them, all intentions of distracting Will with video games forgotten. Will realized he was leaving just in time to stick his head at the door and yell at Henry's back, "Is that why she was crying?"

Henry didn't answer and Will leaned back into the elevator and ran a hand through his hair. _No, that wouldn't explain everything. That would explain me being asleep down in the tunnels, and maybe even Ashley crying, but it would not explain Magnus crying and it would not explain the clothes and it would not explain Henry's sudden avoidance of me._

He suddenly became aware that the elevator wasn't moving. _Of course not, you idiot! You didn't push the button, so it's not going to take you anywhere! _Will pushed the button for the floor his room was on. _Might as well take a shower, I feel all dirty and sticky. I hate feeling all disgustingly dirty like this, and I hate going down in the tunnels and I hate those stupid nubbins!_


	13. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

A gentle knock sounded on the door, but Ashley didn't respond.

The door creaked a bit as it was cracked open. "Ashley, may I come in?

"Sure." Ashley's funk was so deep that she didn't even recognize the voice at the door, and so she was rather surprised to see Dr. Watson pull a chair over next to her bed and sit in it after flicking on the lamp.

"Uncle James. What are you doing here?" Ashley tried to muster some excitement, but she just wasn't feeling it. She couldn't even get a decent measure of curiosity into her tone, so the question ended up sounding like an accusation.

"I heard what happened."

Ashley rolled over and curled into a ball under the covers.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"NO!" The voice, although quiet, was vehement. "I don't even want to think about it!"

"As bad as all that, eh? Funny, I'd have thought you might have rather enjoyed making love to William."

"Uncle James!" She rolled back to face him--_so predictable_-- "How can you even say such a thing! For one thing, it wasn't making love, it was sex. No, it wasn't even sex, it was rape! Rape brought on by those godforsaken walking hormones!"

"Well, I'm glad to see you have no illusions about it now. I was told you thought the whole thing was some sort of dream come true."

"Nightmare, you mean." Ashley curled up again, and Watson recognized that the fetal position was most likely a subconscious attempt to comfort herself.

"I can't believe I did that. I mean, I know I did it, but part of me doesn't want to believe that I did that.

"And it worries me, Uncle James. Not just that I could be capable of rape, but that it might just be the tip of the iceberg." She shuddered. "What if I'm more like my father than anybody wants to admit?"

Watson grabbed her chin gently but firmly and made sure he had eye contact before speaking forcefully.

"You are _not_ John Druitt. Think, Ashley, you had to be drugged before this happened. You would not have done it otherwise. And now that it has happened, you are wallowing in guilt and anguish. I can say for certain that is not the case with Druitt." He released her chin and leaned back in the chair.

"Did you know he used to talk to me about the Ripper cases? I was consulting for Scotland Yard at the time and doing my damnedest to figure out who was behind the murders-- trying to even so much as come up with a description-- a profile, in modern parlance-- and he would come over, practically every night, to talk with me about the case. Part of it was probably just to see if we were closing in on him, but I think part of it may have been gloating, in a way. There was certainly never any remorse involved on his part. I think I may have felt more pity for his victims than he did..."

"And I'm telling you this, Ashley, so that you know how very much you are not like Druitt. That is one thing, I can safely say, you do not have to worry about."

"Oh." Ashley's voice was small, and there were tears in the corners of her eyes, but James thought they probably sprang from relief.

Until Ashley spoke again.

"But what if Will hates me?"

"Then we will work through it, my dear." James's voice was confident, but in his heart he had some doubts.

"No, I don't mean just being angry with me. I mean, what if he really hates me?" Ashley choked back a sob. "I took advantage of him in the worst possible way... I betrayed our friendship... and his trust... and then I didn't even have the decency to tell him when he asked what happened! I just sat there sobbing! I raped him, and then sat there crying like it was his fault or something! How could he ever look at me again with anything other than hatred or revulsion?"

"Well, Ashley, my guess is that he's already at least partially aware of how you feel about the incident. And I think he is unlikely to hate you for something that you feel horrible about, especially since your mother says you remember very little of the incident."

Ashley grabbed Watson's arm. "But that's not true anymore. At first, I hardly remembered anything-- just little flashes, and it seemed like a really hot dream. But now I can remember most of it, I think, and I'm ashamed of what I did." She covered her face with her hands, muffling her next quiet words, which sounded like, "Oh, God, I'm so ashamed," to the best of Watson's ability to make out.

_Try to take it logically, Watson. Let Helen be the comforting mother, and just focus for the moment on allaying her fears with reason._

"I would think that your shame and guilt would predispose William to forgiveness. Especially since a great deal of the fault for the whole incident surely lies with 'those damn nubbins'." He smiled as he said the last three words, trying to inject a particle of humor into the comment.

Ashley just groaned.

"If I ever see a nubbin again, I am going to go get my gun, fill it with bullets, and shoot the thing until it's a bloody pulp. Then I'm going to beat it a bit. And then light it on fire. And I don't care what Mom says. If she wants the damn nubbins to stay alive, she better keep them away from me!"

"Ashley, I was smiling about the nubbins because even your mother has begun referring to them as 'damn nubbins' every time she mentions them, and you know how seldom she swears.

"Think of it this way: if nothing else, you've convinced your mother that you were right about the creatures, and she was wrong! She's even ordered all but two exterminated, and those two are in stasis." Watson tried to project joy into the room by stating this as positively as possible, but Ashley rolled over again.

"The price was too high," she whispered so softly that Watson barely heard it. "I'd rather have Will's friendship back, even if I had to deal with the damn nubbins every single stinking day."


	14. Epilogue 2

**Epilogue 2**

"So, William, what would you say your feelings towards Ashley are after this incident?" Watson intoned gravely while watching the psychologist carefully for signs of dissimulation. _If William ends up hating Ashley forever, that'll be one thing. If he tries to lie to others and say it's fine, or worse yet, lie to himself regarding his feelings, that'll be a whole other ball of wax._

"You know, I'm not really sure. I know she feels terrible-- she can't even look at me-- I don't think she's even come out of her room since it happened. And I feel kinda bad for her that she's hurting so much over it.

But at the same time, I'm angry with her, because she's managed to ruin every relationship I've got here! Everyone knew what was going on before I did. Everyone! And I'm supposedly the victim! And yet, nobody really seems interested in talking to me, or even looking at me for that matter! Magnus runs away any time I'm even in the same hallway, Henry's been locking himself up inside the lab, the big guy's been hiding somewhere out of sight, and even Sally won't come talk to me when I put my hands up against her tank! You're the first person who's said one word to me in over three days, Watson, and I don't mind telling you that I feel isolated and lonely and rejected!

"I mean, I can understand Magnus not being able to look at me, up to a point at least. She's blaming herself, because she has this notion that being the boss automatically makes her culpable for anything wrong that anybody here does, which is patently not true. She's only responsible for her own actions and any orders she hands out. What somebody else does on their own initiative? That's not her fault, not any more than it's my fault people won't look at me!

"But Henry! I mean, I thought we were more than just colleagues, I thought we were friends. We talked about all sorts of stuff, played video games and pool and he was even teaching me some aikido and stuff before, but now? It's like he can't stand the sight of me. I'd hoped I'd still have at least one person on my side in all this."

Will paused for breath and Watson jumped in. "So you see this as the Sanctuary taking sides? With you on the one side and everybody else on the other?"

"Well, that's sure how it feels. I mean, I everybody's really awkward right now, and nobody really wants to talk about IT, but would it kill people to just say hi to me?" Will's hands stopped waving and he slumped backward in the wing chair.

"It's just hard, because I'm supposed to be the expert on how to deal with sort of thing, but right now, I don't have a clue what to do about all this! And sometimes, I think people are waiting for me to do something, but I don't know what to do.

"Part of me really wants to try to go see Ashley, and just try to talk to her, and see if we could salvage our friendship. But then another part of me doesn't want to go because I'm afraid I'll blow up at her and ruin everything. But then another part of me says that we have to talk this out if we're ever gonna get any work done around here ever again. But I'm also afraid to go see her because I know that if it comes right down to it, if there's really no way to work things out between us, then I'll be the one who leaves. Magnus will choose Ashley, which is right, I suppose, but it still hurts like hell even considering it.

"'Cause I like it here. I like being respected for what I do. I like feeling like I'm making a difference for the greater good. I like being part of a team, and feeling like my teammates are more than just people I work with-- they're my friends, my family.

"Which is why it hurts so much what Ashley has done!" Will slammed his hands on the arms of the chair and stood up.

"She's messed up everything! And yet, I can't really blame her, because Magnus says she was so high on nubbin hormones from handling them all day and getting peed on and bit and all that-- that she wasn't really aware of her actions! She remembered taking my pulse-- and then waking up. So it's not really her fault either! Apparently she thought the whole thing was some kind of weird dream, which raises some questions of its own!"

Will paused for breath-- nearly panting-- and Watson ruminated on that last thought_. Yes indeed, that raises questions. He's probably wondering all sorts of things: Does Ashley often have sex dreams involving me? An unconscious me? Would she have been able to stop herself if she realized it was real? How would it have been different if I'd been awake?_

"And you know what? You know what? I feel sorry for her! Yeah, I know, it's crazy, right? Some kind of messed-up Stockholm syndrome or something?"

Will was pacing and waving his arms, but Watson had no intention of stopping him. _The release will be good for him._

"But it's not! Because I don't feel sorry for her so much because she did this to me, but because this happened to her! And I can't even try to help her, because I'm the one she did it to!" He slammed his hands into the back of the chair. "And how messed-up is that? That I feel guilty for not being able to help her?"

Will leaned on the back of the chair and cradled his head in his hands a minute before looking back up at Watson, who was sitting behind Magnus's desk trying very hard not to smile at the revelations coming out of Will's mouth.

"The truth is, Watson, I don't really know if I can tell you how I feel toward Ashley at the moment, because I'm not sure. I probably need some more time to think on it." Will turned to leave the room, but turned back at the sound of Watson's voice.

"On the contrary, my dear boy, you've expressed yourself quite well. I imagine you'd still like some more time to process this, though, before talking any more. But I want you to know that I will be in town for a while, and it is not your job this time to help Ashley work through this. Or at least, not only your job. I'm quite glad you're still interested in helping her in any way."

Will leaned on the door and spoke in a much quieter and calmer voice than Watson had yet heard. "Of course I want to help her. She's my friend."

He paused and looked down before adding quietly, "And I'll still consider her my friend even if she doesn't want to be mine anymore." Will turned to go once again, and then paused with his hand on the doorknob.

"You wanna know how I feel about Ashley right now?" He said once more, without turning to face Watson.

_Indeed I do,_ thought Watson. _Doorknob confessions are usually the most telling. _

"I just wish she could have waited until I was awake to enjoy it too!" The door slammed shut behind Will, but one word was resounding in Watson's head far more than the bang of wood. _Enjoy._

_There may be hope of salvaging this situation after all. He feels anger, yes, but no hatred. Frustration, isolation, pity, guilt, friendship, maybe even some attraction-- all in all not a terrible mix to be working with, given the situation. The frustration just needed an outlet, which it's had, and the isolation can be cured by a few words to Henry, Helen, and the others to just ignore the elephant in the room and talk to the boy. The guilt over not being able to help her-- well, I can work on that with him later. And the pity and friendship? They will work in our favor. He wants to make this work. _

_And she would give anything to have their friendship back. Oh yes, there's a very good shot at fixing things._

_But what he said about "enjoying" it too? Sounds like William is attracted to Ashley. Yes, probably has been for a while and yet hasn't made a move. Why not? Most likely because he didn't want to risk their friendship. And if the talk we had earlier is any indication, Ashley feels the same way. Watson chuckled. Blind, silly kids. I wonder if they'll be willing to take that step once we deal with this? He sobered. Or will this preclude them ever being able to be more than friends?_

_Oh well, no matter how much I might like to play matchmaker a bit, that's not my job right now. But getting their friendship mended? That'll probably be easier than I thought when Helen first let me in on this situation._

_Speaking of Helen, I better find her and give her the good news that she can keep her daughter _and_ her brilliant William._


End file.
